this lossy codec

I happened to be standing near the AD when I heard him say to one of his minions, “Make it your responsibility to prepare the box lunches.” This was not fortuitous news. Barely half an hour to lunch and we were apparently going to work through it. Sure, box lunches would arrive and we would zealously snarf them down (when we had a chance) but the best part of lunch (sitting. or, for some, sleeping) would be denied. Who knew what their rational was. The wind blown dust storms which always seems so bad after lunch? The desire to “shoot out” JD? It didn’t matter.

I did mention the wind, right. It’s interesting how easy it becomes to tell everyone apart despite their face being hidden beneath goggles & bandana. While the lunches sat getting cold the crew scrambled in the blowing dirt to rig and prepare for what, in reality, is the biggest stunt of the show so far. So there we are. Hungry. Hot, squinting and spitting at the dirt. I’m contemplating the date and our solidarity on International Worker’s Day. My blood sugar has dropped to dangerous levels. Tempers flair. Stupidity reigns. Suddenly, the music playback for the scene blares (and I mean blares) the Star Spangled Banner. That just took the cake. The humanity!

In the end, a minor miscommunication ruined the shot (apparently) so it all was for not. Serves them right. Of course, I’d rather they have gotten it. The crew will be the ones picking up the slack in the end.

If only I had some semi-reliable signal then perhaps one of these posts might actually make it up. As it is I have time this morning (so it would seem) but we are remote indeed. Tucked far within Canyon de Chelly. Each morning we stakebed our gear 20 minutes down the riverbed (see pic) then we offload into a smaller 4 wheel “gator” and drive down a finger of the canyon. We have park rangers standing by to make sure our massive footprint doesn’t disturb the remains that populate the park. A ranger informed me that only about one third of it’s 38,000 acres has been fully excavated. As the FX guys dug a ditch yesterday deep enough to hold a person I wondered what they would find.
Yes, it’s unfortunate that this may never get posted. We are scheduled to be here through Saturday and then move back to Monument Valley to try to finish what we didn’t get due to the bad weather last week. The morning is young and stunt shots don’t require much from the sound department. A rare moment of peace. The days have been long and hard this week thus far. I’ll take what I can get.
Eventually, the “real” work commences. There is a period of 4-5 hours where some scurrying in somewhat sweltering heat occurs. The nice thing about working in a canyon though, is the narrow window of daylight. The shadow creeps gradually closer to our frame until it is so mind-boggling close it nearly slices the actors head off. Unbelievable.
Finally we scurry out toward the still existing sunlight but luckily we are spared the pain of struggling to build our rig onto driving vehicle. We would only have gotten the sound of a diesel engine. We would have done it but time (and light) was short.

God it’s depressing to write a blog post only to have it disappear into the ethyr. Apparently the wordpress app doesn’t understand the concept of ‘local draft’. Whatever it was I was writing about it sure seemed a string of genius thoughts at the time. Come to think of it, there is something about the act of writing itself that tickles the particular part of my brain most sensitive to genuineness. Much more stimulating than whatever part browsing effects. For now anyway, the solution is writing to my notepad. I’ll copy and paste it in later.

Waiting on weather. Not that it is raining. Though it is threatening to. We actually got rained out two days last week. The desert just doesn’t have the ability to absorb heavy amounts of rain quickly. And, remote as we are, in the middle of a big hunk of nowhere, it just got plain ol’ silly and maybe even dangerous. So, on a show off 128 days with only 2 days off our biggest break may have been due to rain. Oh well, they don’t seem too worried about it.

Hard to muster up good humor on the first day back after a holiday weekend. Ho-hum. Wednesday we head to Arizona. Monument Valley & Cayon de Chelle. Should be pretty anyway.

Ended up trying for the shot several times over the course of the next 4 hours, as the sun played hide and seek on the edge of a giant dark cloud. Finally, the futility of the situation won out.

Posting this now or else it may never make it.

Nearly two weeks in on the ‘Big Show’. I was beginning to doubt the gig would ever allow me the opportunity to dump some verbage on ye. Well, here goes…

Very different show (in many ways). I am actually a ‘cable guy’ as in wrangling and humping a significant ammount of cable around all day. Whereas I was previously trained in a post-cable (“hard line”) era this is like a throwback to the classic time. There’s a technique to wrapping cable (“over-under”) and it is essential.

There are other differences to this show (an espresso machine at craft service, shooting one scene over the course of two days & actually appreciating what is being shot) but It is still too early to know much of what is yet to come.

Other interesting accounts:

A photo shoot. To officially capture T.L.R & T in all their glory, on horses in front of a blue screen & with a boom operator swinging a long pole over them…wait, what? That’s right, the genius of corporate Dismay decided they needed to lock down the image of our heroes to be sure no one else stole a shot of them first. The boom? Isn’t it obvious? Anyway, we were asked to loan out a spare pole/zeppelin setup for the shoot. I prepped it (and even combed out the furry sock). First we were told the picture boom op was to be our resident cowboy advisor for the movie, a really nice guy who, without exception, blesses his lunch with his hat over his heart every day. He was nixed. Then it was to be our ‘heavyset ranger’ stand-in. He got nixed. Then they gave it to Jeff, our boom op. this seemed best and I thought increased the chance of it getting shluffed off on me. T’was not to be. In nearly the last minute (and each time the news of the change reached us ‘did you hear about the change for the boom op?’. Finally, (for ‘paperwork reasons’) they went with J.D.’s sound guy, Keenen. In an utterly surreal moment, I was briefly the stand-in for the boom op for the photo shoot.

If you don’t appreciate the subtlety of that humorous situation perhaps this other ditty will get you. The justification for all this hard-wiring is the quality over wireless (“man!”). It’s like a vinyl over digital argument to me. But hey, I collect records & 8tracks so how can I argue. Anyway, late in the day yesterday we were getting close to finishing so I had begun to wrap the boom cable back (in hopes of the last shot being MOS). Well, we ended up needing to roll on it and Jeff, in an act of utter pity for me) suggested we just fly with the wireless for this shot. Great, I thought. I’ll wrap the cable back to the cart(100′). So we finish that shot and find that the last shot of the day (the ‘martini’ as its called) was a shot of piss in a bucket (literally). Well, Lee & Jeff decide this requires a level of fidelity not possible via wireless. So back out goes the hard line for one shot of piss in a pail. Man, did it sound good!

Put the lid on another show, leaving a little early for downtime to prepare for next one right around the bend. This show was alright. Good peeps on the whole crew. Next one will be a major shift. Hardly any family faces. I’ll be cabling instead of booming. $215m budget instead of $2m. Abq instead of Santa Fe. Doubt I will even be allowed to take pictures on set. I’ll try to keep the tales of my exploits happening but I really don’t know what to expect.

Here are a few more pix from my final days on ‘code name: geronimo’. Lots of interesting structures around the old prison. Not sure which are original and which were added over the last ten years of movie production.

Day 6 already. Back in the field. A week ago I had just returned from a trip to KC with a trunk full of 60 year old tape recordings from Afghanistan. Today I am on location faking Afghanistan in New Mexico.

Days later we are in the old prison in Santa Fe, for the duration of the show. Lots of gunfire. Be it known that blanks are loud & very dangerous. This prison is the site of the worst prison riot in US history. meanwhile, the news reported this horrific prison fire in Hondurus.
I haven’t had much free time on this show as I’ve been busy booming but I did take some pictures. Hopefully they tell the story.

I can say this about this line of work, it is rarely monotonous. Most days are new adventures in foreign locales. The days since my last post are a blur of hectic motion followed by brief periods of deep unconsciousness. Loosely, the unconscious periods correspond with when I am sleeping and the hectic to those when I am at work. I have vague memories of a horseshoe tournament and a ‘spirit journey’ gone awry.
Yesterday though, laid some deep grooves in the memory region of my grey matter. The details of the stunt aside (see the movie for that), suffice to say there was a ‘bit’ of driving down an uneven, bumpy dirt road. Now, for driving shots in general we ‘go mobile’ and my role turns into driver while the mixer works the gear in the back. He’s got a nice 4 wheel drive jeep (with leather interior no less) that enables us (at least in optimum conditions) to track the picture car from close enough range that the antennae on the roof are able to pick up the feed from the wireless mic’s in the car. The range can be a bit finicky at times due to various factors so it is ideal to stay as close as safely possible. This particular shot got a little hairier than usual and moved my role more toward that of the ‘stunt driver’.
“Faster! Faster!” he yelled as the car sped closer. I knew of the car’s impending approach as the focus of my attention was the rear view mirror. The other part of my attention was on the truck in front of me, also trying to optimize the distance between it and the car so the director could maintain strong enough video reception. There was a moment when I could hear the engine of the picture car plowing down out the rear passenger window while the tail of the truck seemed to be all to close and moving all too slowly in front of me. I went ahead and gunned it, to avoid clipping the camera hanging off the driver’s side window on a ‘hostess tray’. Reflecting the well oiled, synchronized motion of a crew who have obviously gotten “into the groove,” the truck pulled ahead almost as if we were one. This kind of opportunity only happens on these little low budget shows. Show gets more fun every day.

Snow was in the forecast but most of the day passed mildly. It wasn’t until just before evening that giant flakes began to fall. And fall. And fall. It wasn’t as cold as day one but it was a blizzard. Our location, near the fly fishing spot, is up a winding valley along route 63 north of Pecos. By wrap the snow had begun to stick and it the roads were getting icy. My precarious parking job from the morning left me with little other option than to abandon it for the night and catch a ride.

Day 4 was an easier day (I’ve begun to detect a pattern (bad day, good day, bad day, good day) with most of the work inside an old rustic cabin. The weather was sunny, at least while the sun’s trajectory crossed the small window of the valley, slipping away by 3 o’clock. The transo guys got my car free while I scurried around doing my regiment of 2 peoples work. The motions are getting smoother as Bayard (the mixer) and I fall into a groove. Battery, jam, wire. Point stick, suck up sound.

Today (noon call time – I’m writing this at a cafe before I go in), if my pattern is correct might be a rough day. Let’s hope I’m wrong.

The problem with two man crews is the lack of a “third”. This is the second one in a row (low budget) but I’m committed to making time to blog about it.

I awoke this morning at 4:30(after a minor DST fubar). After yoga and an hour drive I land at a remote (ie. no cell service) valley wilderness along a river north of Pecos, NM. It’s cold and there is snow on the ground but soon the sun breaks over the mountainside. Taking high end sound & film gear out into remote areas scratches a particular itch in my novelty obsessed mind. Not quite sure what it is…
Regardless, soon the cameras are set along (or in) the river and I’m wading into the river alongside the actors, flyfishing. Pretty damn fun. Challenging, for sure. Between the angle of the sun creating shadows, the 2 guys casting their lines & dueling cameras at apposing angles & divergent lens sizes I am pretty well fucked most of the time. It is HARD. A hell of a fun challenge though.

After shooting in the river nearly all day we finally ‘move on’ to some driving stuff. This requires a major rework of the gear so I have to slip into geek mode. More fun. Wire the actors, build antennas on the roof rack of the mixers jeep, etc. etc. etc. I drive the jeep behind the car while he mixes.

Thankfully, due to the nature of sunlight in a valley, it is an early day (made even earlier by DST). Who knows what tomorrow will bring.

Regardless, time passes.

Like a rectangular gramaphone bell extending from the lens, the matte box shapes the domain, its hovering ‘eyebrow’ defining a line from lens to subject. Unseen to those looking through, an imaginary laser outlines the scene, coning outward from the lens, a 3D trapezoid. At angles various and a sundry the scene is lit creating an interplay of light(s) and shadow(s). The lights emit waves, particles or wavicles. These are (apparently) reflected off of subjects and objects of various colors and sizes and “captured” as the scene is “shot.” The meticulous arrangement of every light reflecting detail attends a crew of not less than 30 people.

Meanwhile, a microphone hovers at the edge of the frame, tracking actors as they dance and wail. The camera accommodates their dance, shifting the shape and destiny of the laser trapezoid. The physics affecting the propagation of sound pressure waves in air conform to the inverse square law such that each doubling of distance from the source results in half the sound pressure. Each inch counts. The biggest challenge being the navigating around all those wavicles without throwing shadows on people or the background. It’s a bit like chess. Or being a pickpocket. Must be sly enough to not get caught yet bold enough to walk the line between the perceivable and the imperceptibe.

The final weeks of a show (especially one already short on cash) can be a painful, meandering grind. As the show is often being edited while we shoot, the editors come to realize early on little insert shots that are necessary to carry the action from one scene to another so the story makes sense. So we jump from little bit to little bit, changing locations and (hopefully) “cleaning up” what is needed. In addition to this ‘cleaning up’ in these past couple weeks we’ve been blowing things up. In malls (ugh) and in the sweltering summer heat of Albuquerque (gasp). It is exasperating physically and at times mind-numbingly stupid. The organization necessary to cover all this and coordinating so many people is beyond me. In almost every case it inevitably leads to what the English call a palava.

Thankfully, due to limits of time and money, film projects must inevitably wrap. Although there may be a modicum of regret experienced as the tight knit crew is dispersed it is minor indeed compared to the utter relief of getting your life back. Which is normally the case. This time however some other work manifested – The 13th Annual Language of Spirit Conference. I’d run sound for them years ago and they asked me to do it again. Since it started the day O.T. wrapped I figured what the heck. All in all, the conference went on for 4 days (all day long). The story of the conference is for another day. Lots of cool and interesting people. Talking. For a LONG time. The theme this year was ‘Science, Technology & Creativity’, a cool and relevant intersection of ideas, I thought. Unfortunately, many people couldn’t get past “science/technology is good/bad” sorts of perspectives. Love to have had someone like David Dunn there. Most significant person I made contact with was Steven Vedro, the author of Digital Dharma. More than anyone he fluidly synthesizes the spiritual and the digital in a grand scheme of wholeness. His blog post about attending the conference recollects some of the high points.

Anyway, I’m trying to sum up the past to get current here and if I get hung up on details I’ll never finish this blog post before getting called back in to work on the next show. Yes I said show which implies that I am working on another movie. Totally different affair – Indie (low budget) psychedelic 3D conspiracy horror. Was that you groaning or my unconscious? Yes well nothing is perfect and this show may be finding how far you can take that famous dictum. At least the subject matter is somewhat stimulating (to me). MK-ULTRA anyone? Numbers stations? DMT? at least they did their homework. Even if the weaving together of these various threads is complete fiction.

Also, I’m swinging the boom on this one which is always great fun. There is something thrilling (I really do get endorphin rushes after each shot) about keeping the mic just outside the frame. It’s like an extreme sport or something, you know? – “living on the edge.” An exercise in being small and subtle and sneaky.

In other news, anyone raised in the 80′s or with a love of early video games, should go out right now and pick up < a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Ready+player+one&x=0&y=0">Read Player One. I just devoured it and it was the funnest read I’ve had in ages. A total blast.

Deep and extended apologies to all my faithful readers. Most, I’m sure, have given up hope of ever picking up the thread of my unraveled life (I, as well…). Nevertheless by days end, considering I actually get this posted, the yarn will ineligibly woven into the world’s web forever.

What crazed adventures stole me from my narrative duty? In a word, “life”. Mostly in the form of a small humanoid creature. Oddly though, work as well. Yes, meanwhile(as they say) I have been gainfully employed (mostly) on a feature film in Santa Fe. I say mostly in reference to the 3 weeks when the show was shut down because the funding necessary for us to shoot apparently “disappeared”. How does that happen? The mind reels. In the interim we were promised a return to work no less than 8 times. Needless to say, the previously upbeat mood of the crew on what had been up to that point a dream of a show took something of a hit. Alas, ‘never trust a producer’ is the prime directive of film work.

So here we are, the final two weeks of this funny little, slightly cursed picture. Shooting in the shell of an abandoned mall in ‘slightly less quaint than Santa Fe’ Albuquerque. At least it beats the heat. Perhaps something interesting will happen worth documenting (or perhaps my cozy little blog will insulate us from the assaults of reality and wrap us in obscurity).

At a certain point the sustainability of working in the movie industry necessarily comes into question. Physically straining, fiscally uncertain & (at times) psychologically stressful. The fact that I haven’t posted in a nearly a year reflects both my almost complete lack of work in the interim and the invasion/takeover of my life by a small humanoid. There were times when I thought going to work would be a nice “break” from the unceasing stressful management of a one year old.

When a gig finally materialized I had to choice but to take it. Still, in the weeks leading up to it I developed an ominous feeling of dread. Never one to allow feelings to whitewash my mental set going into an experience, I put my best foot forward and wrangled up an optimistic outlook. That outlook probably survived about the first week, which by now is veiled beneath sedimentary emotional layers of anguish, despair & hopelessness. The experience is too sensitive to go into details about (and it would sour the reading palates of my “devoted readers”) but I can say that I lasted about five weeks and my expulsion seemed more of a release than anything else. Regardless, there is a sting to being let go and my experiences leading to the end had undermined my self-respect and left me seriously questioning my future. There was some release in the last few days when I simply stopped caring but just went ahead performing my job to the best of my ability.

My last day was on Friday and we wrapped late (around 2am). I had (perhaps foolishly) agreed to boom a non-paying gig the following day as a favor for a friend. Unfortunately, this equated with 4 hours sleep sharing a bed at a friends pad. But I felt pretty good about it. I was working with friends and as I worked it seemed to gradually be cleansing me of all the negative vibes that permeated my daily existence for the past several weeks. This “purification” built to a head later in the afternoon. You see, the gig which I committed to blindly, turned out being a motivational speaker for Mary Kay inductees. The pinnacle moment for these ladies (aged 20s-60s+) involved karate chopping a board in half. The speaker admitted to having NO TRAINING WHATSOEVER in any martial art. Regardless, she donned her self-stylized “gi” and took the 100+ ladies through the motions. Of course, to muster the necessary force required uttering a guttural “hi-ya!”

So, this is what I had been hired to boom. The women all broke down into groups of 10 or so and began taking turns chopping the boards (or trying to). Meanwhile, my crew scurried around the room with 4 (5?) cameras trying to guess who was going to successfully obliterate the board. While this goes on (it must have gone for nearly an hour) I’m swinging the boom pole around while women are chanting “Go! Go! Go!” building to a “hi-ya!” This is one of those moments you just can’t comprehend the profundity of until after the fact. You can say what you want about motivational speakers (or Mary Kay for that matter) but when a bunch of middle age (and some just plain old) ladies start harnessing enough chi to push their hand through a solid object you can feel it. And hear it. Looking back I sort of feel like I was a whirling dervish focused on my dance while someone yelled out instructions, programming my unconscious mind (“Go! Go! Go!”).

In the end almost every single person broke their board (only a couple had to use their foot) and while certainly fatigued I truly felt a kind of purification had a occurred. It was hard to hold onto any sense of negativity after scurrying around that room trying to “capture” the essence those people were generating. Also, the sheer absurdity of it sends my mind reeling. Always good to send your mind reeling, especially when it’s been reeled in too long.

The long, bumping van ride reminds me of the Peruvian hiway into the jungle. The pothole devastated road required the driver to continually veer to & fro in a vain attempt to align his path over the dwindling minority remaining of the road. It didn’t seem to help. Perhaps it was some technique he had developed to fling our momentum out horizontally in some way dampening our constant vertical thrust. The ride was a long enough that going slow wasn’t an option. At some point we passed a cnstruction crew, repairing the road one hole at a time. The futility of their effort didn’t stop us from spontaneously leaning out the window & cheering them on maniacally. The “road” was lined with fires that went deep into the jungle and rose high into the sky, obscuring the sun with lightening filled clouds. Ominous & foreboding.

But New Mexico is a long way from Peru. We’re four out of five days in on a shoot in nw nm filming in the alien landscape of the Bisti Badlands. Millions of years have eroded this once underwater dinosaur graveyard into the anomalous forms called ‘hoodoos’. Stunning and (cough, cough) dusty. Giant dust devils spontaneously appear and disappear, leaving destruction in their wake. Amazing and absurd, this process of movie making. Hard to imagine the place surviving our impact.

It figures that I would jinx myself by starting to blog. Before yesterday was over I got a call from the guys on set in desperate need of some crucial components. I gathered it up and took a van to set some 12 miles down the road (according to the driver). Upon arrival, not seeing any actors, camera or my fellow sound brethren, I wandered around aimlessly until the familiar voice of a PA called out, “Brett, I’ve got a snowmobile for you.”.
You see, this shot required a car careening through the woods and with the adition of another 8″‘s or so on Sunday night there was probably a good 18-20″ on the ground. So, the snowmobile driver and I hopped on and

Spare time is so easy to waste I neglect to use it properly. So here is a post, dear readers – confirming the continuity of my existence in this electronic hinterland. At dinner the other night my friend who hosts this site chastised me for neglecting my documatorial duties and so I must unburdon myself by spewing forth some kind of narrative.

It’s the monday beginning week three on ‘Knockout’. We’ve been shooting a lot up in Los Alamos and today is no different. Thanks to the massive 8″ dump of snow yesterday I was late to an already pushed call (thankfully) of 2 hrs. On arrival I frenetically rushed to get the ‘pod car’ (pictured) wired and all the various acoustical gear together. These days with driving footage involved rigging the car first thing and then not seeing it again until lunch (Dennis & Eddie (mixer & boom) were riding in one of the two follow vans – no room for me). So here I am (again) holding down the camera truck – reading, surfing & blogging (finally).

Yes. It is I. Anyone reading this has probably stumbled onto it aeons hence as they had stopped paying attention since I hadn’t updated in so long. So it goes. Why else would this blog be any different than my history of orphaned journals? Ah well, let us continue as if we had only paused to take a breath.

I just learned that skim milk actually makes better foam than whole because of a higher sugar content. Go figure. 37 and still learning. I also just accidentally jailbroke my iphone (no, seriously). Though I doubt it would hold up in the court of the ‘Genius Bar’ it is indeed what happened. Actually, I was trying to jailbreak my old iphone (now in my eldest son’s possession – at his request) and got them mixed up. Doh! Ah well, we’ll see how that turns out.

What else is new…

Found This cool article on 6 Insane Coincidences You won’t Believe . Actually, only the first 2 are that insane to me but they are really insane. I love this kind of stuff. Fort wrote about them extensively and a few of them are mentioned in the intro to Magnolia. These stories make me wonder about the nature of time, imagination & cause/effect. The first two are about authors whose books foretold future events. Were their sensitive imaginations picking up on ripples from future events? Is it possible their books actually somehow influenced events? Which is harder to swallow? Either way, it makes writing seem like a delicate operation. Be careful what you throw out there, right?

Over the years I have experienced a multitude of these synchronicities. So much so that I’ve stopped paying attention and merely accept them as a normal state of affairs (although perhaps secretly I take some satisfaction in them being a sort of reassurance of my life being ‘in sync’).

As for this blog, we shall see what happens. I’m going to try to keep some regular updates happening (for my won sanity, if nothing else) but it all really depends on how I decide to use my precious time. So many other ways to waste it… I am starting a new gig in march so hopefully I’ll be in a better state of mind about sharing what is happening. Stay tuned!

Ok. Well, I kind of gave up on trying to document what was, a painfully monotonous 5 months. Some days were less so but it was becoming difficult to mantain the conditions of the NDA I signed when I began the show. It’s a very fine line trying to document this life while not letting the cat out of the bag.

So here we are, the final few days of the final week of a show that ate half a year of my life (and perhaps more… time will tell). All in all it’s been a great run. Learned a lot more about all kinds of aspects of filmmaking. I’m better at my job for sure. And I understand the roles of other crew better as well.

TV work may be involve grueling long hours for months on end but luckily with this show we haven’t had any night work (yet). Alas, there are always exceptions.
It’s getting cold this time of year, which actually, is refreshing. The New Mexico sun can be brutal and the onset of the cool blanket of night helps me understand where the egyptians came up with the concept of worshipping the setting sun (or dying god). Yes indeed, you can always bundle up to stay warm but removing clothes only does so much in dealing with the heat.
Anyway, we’re out in an RV park so it’s a little like camping. At least the “wild” outdoors is a welcome shift from working on the stage all week. Of course, at this point we’re widdling into our weekend hours. Ah, well….
In other news, I’ve gotten offers to work on two other pictures here in New Mexico. Unfortunately, the schedules overlap with this one (& each other) & I can’t really justify leaving this longer show to work on a shorter one. Nice to be in demand.